Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Me as Artist




We all create. We form sentences, prepare food, arrange objects, and develop relationships. I just don't know what makes any of it art. What changes a bunch of sentences into a timeless work of literature. What makes one drawing better than another. I don't know.


I've taken less than 5 art classes (probably 3 at least as an elementary schooler, one in high school and a theory class in college) and know little to nothing about making art or how that works. My techniques are only what I have after doodling. Yet that need to create occasionally grips me.



Not often, in truth, but occasionally. But I don't know what I'm doing, or how to do anything I might want to do. So I doodle. My students can attest to the fact that any four legged animal I draw except for a snake and snail everything has a round body, 4 legs, a round head and perhaps a tell tale type of ear or tail.


So why even talk about it if I can't do it and don't know what I'm doing.


Because I doodled and had fun.






Garden Update


I've had seeds in the dirt for a week now and am seeing some progress. The world around my yard is beginning to bloom and I'm doing my best to enjoy every minute of the progress. I've said before how much I love watching the growth process. Plants can teach us so much about life. We need very little; a safe home, sun shining on us, and water. An the results can be endless!








The official update:


in the ground:

radishes - up
sunflowers - not up

marigolds - not up

strawberry plant - looking good (see picture)

chives - thriving and ready to be split (see picture)

garlic - replanted more and it appears to be doing well

peony - sprouting (see picture)

tulips - lots of leaves, one flower :( (but it is beautiful anyway!)

In a pot:

lettuce - up

tomato - not up


peppers - not up


shasta daisy - maybe up (could be a weed instead?)


cilantro - not up


thyme - up

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Awake

What an interesting brain time yesterday! For 75 cent Tuesdays my Dad and I went last minute to see Avatar. Probably wasn't our favorite movie of all time but at least was intersting. And a wonderful time spent with my dad. I feel like there were times growing up that the parent/child strain was tough on both of us. Last night we talked about movies, scoffed at crying children in the theater together, and had a fun little weeknight adventure. I asked Mom about going to see it but with the synopsis that it was about "blue people" she said she wasn't racist but didn't care to see a movie about blue people. LOL

I got home, got ready for bed like a good little school teacher and figured I'd read a few chapters of the Kite Runner that I started in the afternoon. oops!

Four hours and 2pm later when I finished I had the satisfaction in my brain and heart that comes from a great book. Tragic, plausable, but full of amazing writing and greater adventures. Far off places and daring swordfights kept me on my toes (almost literally) as I dove deeper into the story of what shaped one man's life, and those around him. The tradgedy was heart-breaking, but the acts of redemption satisfied.

So now, with 4 hours of sleep under my eyes I better get ready for a LONG day!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Waiting for Paradise

Each day and week I await a perfect day, perfect week, or painless perfect glorious moment. I don't recall many perfect days, and know I shouldn't expect to in this fallen world. Yet when I know of the true Perfection that is in Christ I long for those glimpses that continue to prove to me that He is real, He is my Savior, and his plan for me is perfect. My perfectly laid plans all fall to waste in comparison to the plan he has for me. But, oh, how painful that waiting and unknowing can be.

Different songs have taken on different meanings as life continues and this one written by Stuart Townsend always brings me to my knees and humbles any and every moment in life.

Here are some of the lyrics with my thoughts:


“In Christ Alone” Lyrics by Stuart Townsend

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe (Hallelujah! This is why I love Christmas!)
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save (Oh, how the pain and scorn must have felt for our Savior)
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied (It was my sin that kept him on the cross)
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live
There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day(I always get goosebumps on this line, especially when someone with an amazing voice is singing it and just BELTs it out!)
Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory (Thanks be to God - my victory is secure in him!)
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ
No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man (This is the one I want to belt out and proclaim to the world!)
Can ever pluck me from His hand‘til
He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Aaah-chooo

Step one: Freeze all movements
Step two: blink a lot or stare in one spot
Step three: Inhale deeply
Step four: Continue to bore a hole with your eyes in one location
Step five: Use some foot stamping, hand swinging, head snapping motion and sneeze
Step six: Repeat step five two or more times until the world is spinning
Step seven: Check to see if snot has been launched
Step eight: Continue to blow nose until step one occurs again (in the next hour or so)

Apparently the trees are blooming. And I'm sneezing. And wearing my glasses. Trying to listen to my body and relax but the sneezing, sniffing, eye scratching, swollen face deal is not what I wanted for a sunny Saturday :(

Time to unload the dishwasher, reload it, and see what else I can do without having to bend over and refill my sinus cavity with snot!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Garden Plan 1


So after my to do list I started my garden plan. It's a bit rough (i.e. no measurements and the established plants may be in the wrong spots, not to scale I'm sure) but its and idea. The plan also gives me an idea about where I need to till the soil and what I might be able to leave alone. I also will need to figure out how to water this far back away from the house. I presume the garden will have to be on multiple zones (arg!).
Problems:
  • Don't know if the border material I have for the grass/garden border will be long enough.
  • Watering
  • Clearing weeds
  • Supporting the tomato's and beans
  • material for a path that won't just be mud after watering
Questions:
  • How big to make a path
  • Keeping track of plants when I'm not planting everything at the same time (spreadsheet anyone?)
  • Relative location of plants in proximity to each other.

A To-Do List (an organized list too)


I'm in a list making mode and not so much a 'doing' mode so here it goes. I'm going to try categorizing my to-do list into sections that relate to each other to see if I am more productive or just more blindly ambitious.


Yard work and Gardening:


  • Create a plan for back 1/3 of yard

  • Transplant plants that are in the vegetable or flower garden area

  • Have dad use rototiller machine to chop up soil

  • Learn what loam is

  • Add loam to soil per friend who has a degree in this stuff

  • Take out weeds that are churned up

  • Run irrigation system to appropriate areas

  • Purchase seeds

  • Plant

  • Weed

  • Weed

  • Plant

  • Weed

Housework:



  • Put laundry away

  • Do more laundry

  • Vacuum

  • Rearrange game / DVD cupboard so the door closes

  • Finally get rid of pile of junk in pantry that has been there for ever

  • Run and empty dish washer

  • Recycle (its overflowing)

Work:



  • Log PBS hours

  • Turn in 2 credit forms

  • Mail License at Post Office this week

  • Create Pioneer outfit for rendezvous day

  • Collect 5 graded assignments per subject by the end of next week

Personal Goals:



  • Read 1-2 hours per day

  • Continue to not have overdue fees at Library

  • Cook something real

  • Eat less sugar (jelly beans were the downfall today, cream the day before, cupcakes the day before, etc.)

  • Actually do something on my to-do list....tonight

  • Continue to compost
  • Update my list with accomplishments by Friday